See main article: Fidonisy-class destroyer. The Fidonisy-class ships were designed as improved version of the with an additional 102mm gun. Kerch had an overall length of 92.51m (303.51feet), a beam of 9.05m (29.69feet), and a draft of 3.2m (10.5feet) at full load.[1] The ship displaced 1326LT at normal load and 1580LT at full load. She was propelled by two Parsons steam turbines, each driving one propeller, designed to produce a total of 29000shp using steam from five three-drum Thorneycroft boilers for an intended maximum speed of 33kn. During her sea trials, the ship reached a speed of from . No records survive of Kerchs range trials, but her sister ships had ranges between 1850nmi at to at . Her crew numbered 136 men.[2]
The ships mounted a main armament of four single 102 mm Pattern 1911 Obukhov guns. Unhappy with the reliability of the 40adj=on1adj=on anti-aircraft gun, the navy replaced them with a pair of 57mm Hotchkiss guns which were installed after she was completed. Kerch was also fitted with four 7.62mm M-1 machine guns. The destroyers mounted four triple 450sp=us1sp=us torpedo tube mounts amidships with a pair of reload torpedoes and could carry 80 M1908 naval mines. They were also fitted with a Barr and Stroud rangefinder and two 60sp=usNaNsp=us searchlights. Kerch was delivered without her gunnery and torpedo fire-control systems and they were installed after she was commissioned.[3]
The eight Fidonisy-class destroyers were ordered on 17 March 1915 at a cost of 2.2 million rubles each. All of them received names in honor of the victories of Admiral Fyodor Ushakov. Among these was Kerch, commemorating Ushakov's victory at the Battle of Kerch Strait in 1790.[4] After being added to the Black Sea Fleet ship list on 2 July 1915, Kerch was laid down in the Russud Shipyard in Nikolayev on 29 October 1915. The ship was launched on 18 May 1916 and completed on 27 June 1917.[1] She was assigned to the Third Division of Destroyers and escorted a minelaying mission in July.[5] The navy ceased offensive operations against the Central Powers in early November in response to the Bolshevik Decree on Peace before a formal Armistice was signed the next month.[6] Her crew joined the Bolsheviks the following month.[5] In January 1918 the ship supported Bolshevik efforts to consolidate their power in Yevpatoria and Feodosia, Crimea, and bombarded Romanian troops in the Danube estuary. The next month, Kerch participated in a punitive expedition against Novorossiysk to suppress anti-Bolshevik elements. On 29 April the ship sailed from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk to avoid being seized by advancing German forces. On 18 June, the ship scuttled the battleship Svobodnaya Rossiya and her sister ship in Tsemes Bay with her torpedoes to avoid turning them over to the Germans in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The next day Kerch sailed to Tuapse and scuttled herself off the harbor entrance. On 22 November 1922 the Soviet salvage organization EPRON attempted to raise her wreck, but it broke into pieces while being lifted. They raised her engine rooms in December 1932 and the repaired turbines were installed in the Tuapse power plant.[7]